We are all lumps, and of so various and inform a contexture, that every piece plays, every moment, its own game, and there is as much difference betwixt us and ourselves as betwixt us and others.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.

On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.

I quote others only in order the better to express myself.

Learned we may be with another man's learning: we can only be wise with wisdom of our own.

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

Why do people respect the package rather than the man?

The greater part of the world's troubles are due to questions of grammar.

[Marriage] happens as with cages: the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair of getting out.

The thing I fear most is fear.

I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything, but catch nothing except wind.

Life may look to be made up of incredible coincidences. One problem. I don’t believe in coincidences. I believe in twists of fate.

Every culture has its distinctive and normal system of government. Yours is democracy, moderated by corruption. Ours is totalitarianism, moderated by assassination.

There is an animal joy to being young that you can only appreciate when you are old.

The enemies of the future are always the very nicest people.

In truth it is best to learn wisdom, and abandoning all nonsense, to leave it to boys to enjoy their season of play and mirth.

I think even though he [Nelson Mandela] was feted and praised as he was, he always was at pains to say, I'm a human being.

There is no need to run outside for better seeing... Rather abide at the center of your being; For the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see... The way to do is to be.

And it occurred to me that friendship was a lot more dependable, not to mention long-lasting, than love.

When I meet thousands of fans of the comic - when I realize every one of them can recite the Lantern Corps oath ('In Brightest Day, in blackest night...') - I know how important this is to people.

For the last 40 years of my life I have broken my back, my fingernails, and sometimes my heart, in the practical pursuit of my favourite occupation.